A booming trade with China spurred a 4% growth in exports of German fresh/frozen pork in the first six months, with volumes totalling 886,000 tonnes.

According to AHDB Pork, shipments to China more than doubled to 148,000 tonnes during the period, asGermany remained the largest exporter of pork to the world's second-largest economy, accounting for one fifth of all shipments in January-June.

However, Germany's share of the Chinese market fell from 26% in the same period in 2015, as other major producing nations all increased the volume of pork they exported to China, the pork division of the UK's Agriculture & Horticulture Development Board noted.

Exports to other EU member states decreased except those to Austria. While Italy was still the largest export market for German pork, volumes were down 6% to 169,000 tonnes, only 21,000 more than the Chinese shipments.

German imports of fresh/frozen pork recorded a decrease of 8% in the first half versus the same period last year. Decreased shipments from Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands helped bring the overall decline. However, increased imports from Spain and Poland were recorded, but these did not change the overall direction of import volumes.